The Newest Animal Crossing Installment

[Fjoora]

Hello, everyone!

So, here we are. Four years later and still no surfaced information regarding the latest installation of the Animal Crossing franchise. So, firstly, let's take a look at our timeline so far, shall we?

The first installment-Animal Crossing-saw a release in Japan in 2001, while coming later to the United States on September 15, 2002. The original Nintendo DS title-Animal Crossing: Wild World-debuted in 2005, but didn't hit shelves in the US until December 5, 2005. The third, and most forgettable of them all, -Animal Crossing: City Folk- dropped in 2008. And last, but certainly not least, -Animal Crossing: New Leaf- showed up on November 8, 2012 for good old Japan, and June 9, 2013 for North America.

OKAY. With that all said, let's look at those numbers, again. Just looking at Japan, we have four years between Game 1 and Game 2, three years between Game 2 and Game 3, and then four more years between Game 3 and Game 4. Now, by no means have they promised any specific timeline, and have even have gone as far as making unnecessary spin-offs that are in the vein of other Nintendo IP's, but have yet to live up to anything like the Mario series Spin-offs or even Zelda series Spin-offs. It's a bit sad, honestly, and I'm sure we would all appreciate the focus on the primary series of games.

Buuut, just observing the gaps here, we're on year four with no signs of virtually anything, other than the spin-offs of course, which were all announced midway through last year.

Now, as for what signs point to a new game being on the horizon? There isn't much, but judging by the fact that we're about to have four total series of Amiibo Cards, 400 in total, that work for only one to two games at best-both of which were not received well by critics- and a sizable amount of amiibos for the special npc's, there's some minuscule chance that they could be utilized for at least some small flavor content in a future installment. And if they weren't planning on doing that, maybe they should look into it. Let's be honest, if you're a collectaholic, like most of us are, we're going to be dropping upwards of $1000 to get all of these extras, and for what? Such a minor role in two spin-off games?

All that being said, what do you all think? Is there a new game in the near future that's just out of reach? Will they be utilizing all of the amiibo collectibles we've been purchasing for nearly a year? Or will they hold off for the next generation of consoles, considering that if they were to make a new animal crossing, it would most likely be on the Wii U, which is a home console and far less mobile and well-received than the portable consoles.

I'm rambling, please, give me your thoughts and let me know what I've missed! I'm very interested in this topic of discussion! Have at it, my friends!

Cheers!

 

[Shadow516187]

THIS IS MY OPINION AND YOU SHOULDN'T CARE
They haven't announced anything because of the NX. All the fans were expecting a Wii U installment but we got Amiibo Festival. I don't think putting a full Animal Crossing game on a failing console would be smart for the franchise. It would do more harm than good. Making a Wii U Animal Crossing WOULD increase the sales, but I think it would be less successful. Look at City Folk, that game was the worst in the franchise, making bad decisions all over the place with the stupid motion controls (IMO).
New Leaf was alright in my opinion. I DO think it's the best in the franchise, but I think the size of the towns are unacceptable. Being 2nd smallest in the franchise, it's difficult to find a viable town to place everything you want due to it being very small.
Amiibos are stupid cash grabs. I don't own any with the exception of the Wolf Link amiibo because it came with Twilight Princess HD. I don't even use that Amiibo; it's a good thing to put on display though! And yes, Animal Crossing Whatever is going to have Amiibo functionality.
You should have went more into detail with the Japanese titles. Those titles have villagers and other things that didn't make the American release.
Nintendo will make a new installment because they enjoy to beat dead horses with their other IPs. Nintendo keeps ****ting out the same games and they get praised for it. I don't think this is bad; I do enjoy the modern Mario games.
I'd honestly wait a year or two when the NX has been out for a good while.

 

[crosserkelsey]

Personally, I've been thinking lately that we may see a new installment of Animal Crossing pretty soon. Because while there's not a set timeline, the dates of when Animal Crossing games line up. Not only that, but it's around the time that we would be likely to see a new sequel, not to mention the fact that fans really want a new installment, and there's a lot of amiibos and such out there for it, so it makes sense for them to be making a new one soon. With that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if once the NX is released, if there will be a new game announced soon as well. To me, it just makes sense for them to make a new game soon, whether we see it happen this year (which I have a feeling we'll be seeing one soon) or early next year. Things line up, and it makes sense, not only that, it would be stupid for Nintendo not to make a new Animal Crossing game with how popular it is.

 

[pika62221]

You've got to look at the bigger picture. First, Japan got it as a final game for the 64, after having been developed for the 64-DD which was cancelled after a really short lifetime, so it saw an enhancement over to the GameCube. That got localized into Animal Crossing first in the US, then to other countries. It really started between 2001 to 2003 given all the other markets saw it.

Wild World was setup to be region-free (all DS games were region free). It had a short development time since they didn't need to worry about all the holidays and such. Localization only focused on dialog too, speeding up the process. City Folk, more or less, merged the first 2 games with a little new stuff, so it didn't have a big development time either.

New Leaf had a LOT of development. In fact, it was even delayed, and good thing too- look how it looked at E3, 2011 (good thing they cleaned it up, imagine if New Leaf actually looked like this):

They clearly took their time with New Leaf. Now, here's the kicker. Splatoon took a lot of the core developers away from Animal Crossing. It was a good decision, Splatoon saved the Wii U in Japan, but again, took away from Animal Crossing development. Instead, we got a game that reused New Leaf's engine, and one developed by ND Cube who modeled it after Amiibo Party from Mario Party 10.

This means the Wii U is likely only to see Amiibo Festival as its Animal Crossing game, despite fans mixed reactions- likely why they reissued the Select version of City Folk since all Wii U's play Wii games. Look for the NX to definitely have one, especially if the rumors are true of a handheld/console hybrid, because that will end once and for all the debate among fans on which is better handheld or console. Really, 90% say handheld, despite starting on consoles, so it would literally please all 100% of fans. As long as it gets long development like New Leaf does, I really don't care what it's on, I played it in 2002, and fell in love with the series afterwards.

 

[Bowie]

This is an extremely unpopular opinion, but I feel like Nintendo need to stop creating new editions of existing games. In my opinion, they should follow the example of a number of small indie development groups and update their games and expand them, rather than keep releasing them with one or two new features. Just look at Pok?mon, for example. Putting aside the fact the majority of their newer games have been remakes of the old ones, Sun and Moon just look like X and Y with a few new Pok?mon, yet again inspired by ice cream and battery packs.

What I'm trying to say is that Nintendo should update their games instead of making entirely new versions. I know they're entirely different games, but look at games such as Minecraft and Team Fortress 2. Both have been updated for years now, and if you compare them to their first few versions, they're entirely different. It's called development, and it's something Nintendo should start doing. Something they could've done with Mario Kart 8 was add more courses and characters, some purchasable and some free.

It would be a big change in how Nintendo make their games, but they're obviously running out of ideas if all they can do is make social networks avatars, and the occasional Mario platformer with two new kinds of mushrooms.

 

[carp]

questions that the next game needs to answer:

• the sable's story was dreadfully short in new leaf - i want more details about their past that city folk left a question mark over
• did frillard die?
• will tortimer still be alive in the next game? he's finally in retirement, how long will he last?
• will the fountain goddess return?
• will we have beach pwps?
• are there going to be more fruits?
• who is zipper t. bunny? lyle is now ruled out.. so?

 

[AnimalCrossingPerson]

New Leaf had a LOT of development. In fact, it was even delayed, and good thing too- look how it looked at E3, 2011 (good thing they cleaned it up, imagine if New Leaf actually looked like this):

Meh, it's just minor differences.

 

[crosserkelsey]

Meh, it's just minor differences.

Agreed, I do agree the quality isn't *quite* as good, but really it's not super different. I do like the longer dock though, that's really nice. Wish New Leaf had a larger one.

Aside from that - I love your siggy lol can't stop looking at it. xD Do you watch Chadtronic??

 

[Fjoora]

Meh, it's just minor differences.

I agree, actually.
This was just a video demonstration of the base game graphics and such, and I honestly wouldn't have been that miffed if trees just so happened to look a little bit different.

 

[Awesomeness1230]

Personally, I think Nintendo's game quality is going a tiny bit downhill. Happy home designer is great,
but it has more potential. As for amiibo festival, that's practically a modified Mario Party 10! But AC isn't the only Nintendo game series going downhill. Splatoon is incredibly addictive, but has many flaws
that prevent the game selling as well as it could. Legend of Zelda I believe is one exception, though I've never played. Yoshi's Wooly world, again, never played, but SERIOUSLY?? Woolly Yoshi's and that's pretty much it as far as I can tell.

Nintendo seem pretty optimistic about NX, so we can count on that for quite a few games! AC will probably be one of them if we get a sequel , although many still count on AC: Wii U. So will we?
That depends on how things are going for Nintendo . New Leaf was a huge hit, but the two spinoffs didn't do as well. They will probably release one more game at least, although I suspect they won't take as much time as in NL.